Tag: health

The Struggle Continues

The issues from yesterday are still around today. My back is still in serious pain. Tylenol helps, but I’m seeing evidence that each dose wears off faster than the last. That’s not good.

The stomach is still an issue too, but is it really? I barely ate anything yesterday, and it’s been a smidge over 12 hours since the last time I had even the smallest bite of anything, and that was just a single piece of bread. When I woke up and my stomach was off, was it just because it was as empty as my little rewired, redesigned, butchered stomach can be?

I’ve had a little water this morning along with my morning vitamins and another dose of Tylenol. The 15 minute break between drinking and eating just ended. I am about to try eating a protein bar. Will I feel better afterwards? Will I feel worse? I haven’t a clue, but I’ll let you know when I know. Wish me luck, universe!

The Crappy Day Continues

I had a bowl of soup for lunch. Campbell’s Chicken Noodle. Classic. I thought that was safe, given that my stomach issues were fading at the time.

Nope.

The lunch time soup sat in my stomach like a dead weight for hours. At the same time, the back pain came back to me all fresh and new. I had some Tylenol before lunch and it’s safe to say it worked. I had some more about an hour ago and it’s working again. I haven’t had anything to eat in about 4.5 hours and I have to have something, but what?

I think I am going to just try a piece of bread or two. Maybe bread and butter. Something light and simple that hopefully won’t nuke my digestive system again.

Let’s see how this plays out.

In the meantime… cat picture.

51/365
51/365

Sick Day

Didn’t we just go through a whole sick thing?

I woke up with back pain. That’s new. Yesterday Jen and I did a bunch of moving things around in her office and that involved me lifting heaving things and picking them up off the floor and putting them onto a table and back again, over and over again. I think I strained my back a little. It woke me up a little before 5:00am and then made it really difficult to fall back to sleep.

On top of that I was, gastric bypass recoverally speaking, really fucking stupid and I ate WAY too much last night. I knew I was doing it as I was doing it and for some reason I just kept doing it. Like some kind of moron. I felt okay when I went to bed, so I assumed I would continue to feel okay. I did not. My stomach was a gassy, achey mess this morning and it was all my fault.

Those two things combined made it virtually impossible for me to do anything. I tried to go through my morning routine, but 12 oz of water with my vitamins and a two-protein bar breakfast just made the stomach situation that much worse. Also, the existence of the stomach situation made the back situation that much worse.

Generally speaking the treatment for any gastric bypass stupidity is patience. Eventually it will work itself out. I think I am feeling that now. I feel better. Far from 100%, but better. That’s good. My back is a little better too, but it’s still there. The jerk.

So the moral of this particular story is this:

Don’t be a friggin moron.

QED

Blood Sugar

November 13, 2015 was the worst day. It was the day Harry was diagnosed with type one diabetes. He was so sick that it was terrifying. Fortunately he recovered quickly and we went from being utterly terrified for his life to learning all we could about maintaining his health. That included all sorts of information on the signs of both high and low blood sugar. We learned that high blood sugar had few outward symptoms, but at some point it becomes life threatening. Harry’s initial problems were due to a sky high blood sugar levels.

Low blood sugar has more obvious symptoms. In extremes it is just as life threatening, but there are more signs of issues at much lower levels. They include shakiness and light headedness. Not long after my gastric bypass I started having quick moments of light headedness myself. I never got a specific reason why but among the possibilities were low blood pressure and low blood sugar.

This weekend I had a moment where it was clear that I was having a low blood sugar moment. I felt exactly the way the staff at Boston Medical Center told us low blood sugar would make you feel, and exactly the way Harry described when we asked him how he felt during a low. Light headed and shaky and weak. I had something to eat and felt better after a few minutes. Today, just before lunch, it happened again. It wasn’t as bad this time and again, having a bite to eat improved things quickly.

So my question to the universe is: Is this going to be a thing now? It’s just another reason to not forget to eat. I need to keep what’s left of my rewired, bypassed, tiny little stomach pouch from getting too empty. I can handle that. Bring it on, I guess.

How Are We Doing?

Hey folks. How is it going? Are we all doing all right tonight? It’s Friday the 13th, has the universe thrown you any curve balls?

Today has gone okay for me. I found out my nephew has Covid. Sigh in frustration. I hope he’s okay, and I hope he kicks it way faster than I did. I don’t want him to be sick for three weeks the way I was. I have a whole new perspective on this particular plague and somehow it makes everything worse.

I had another one of those empty stomach things that I wrote about last night. Usually it hits about three hours after eating. Today it hit two hours after I finished lunch. I had a snack and thought I would be okay until dinner, but an hour later it came back. Weird. That’s the first time this issue was not predictable. I didn’t eat dinner until 7:00, which was about an hour after the stomach ache came back. We’re going to have to keep an eye on this tonight. I don’t want any weirdness. Unpredictable weirdness is not as fun as you’d think.

Jen and I just watched this week’s episode of Loki. Season two episode two. At lunch today I was poking around news.google.com and I was almost spoiled about seven times. I am going to have to be more careful on Fridays for the next four weeks.

I just checked the weather for the weekend. It is going to be clear at sunrise tomorrow and clear just after sunrise on Sunday. There must be photos this weekend. It’s a necessity. I have a lot of stuff on my agenda and I’m booked pretty solid. Still, from a mental health standpoint a photowalk somewhere must happen. The mornings are getting cold and there are only so many more opportunities left before the winter ruins everything. I have to take advantage of this. Ocean sunrise and maybe some Merrimack River stuff tomorrow and then either around town on Sunday or maybe finally spend an hour or two walking around the city? Boston at sunrise on a Sunday should be easy to social distance, shouldn’t it?

Like I said, there is a lot on my plate this weekend. I need to make time for some creative stuff. I’m still feeling a little shell shocked from the covid journey so my brain needs to stretch its figurative legs a little.

Here’s hoping we can make something happen this weekend. Assuming Friday the 13th lets us through the day, right?

Stomach Fun

It’s been an eventful day in terms of gastric bypass life today. My stomach has not really been a team player. I think if I am being honest with myself I cannot blame today’s fun on my stomach. I have to put all of the blame on myself. Which is really the same thing, isn’t it?

Twice today I have had stomach pain caused by my poor little redesigned stomach pouch being too empty. Three hours after breakfast and three hours after lunch I had stomach pain bad enough that I had to eat something to make it go away. As my doctor said when I told her about the occasional hour-three-pains, duh you’re hungry. I thought about adding something to my lunch in the hopes that it would keep me full for longer, but I felt pretty stuffed when I finished lunch and I didn’t want to risk overdoing it. Looking back, I wonder if I should have pushed things a little more. Probably not.

The next fun came during dinner. I had a couple of ounces of chicken on my plate along with a scoop of instant mashed potatoes. I had finished the chicken without issue but I really wanted to get into those potatoes, babie. Just call me a red haired Irish stereotype. I had what I thought were a couple of small bites but either they were bigger than they should have been or I just ate too fast because my stomach felt a little blocked. Something was keeping the last bite or so from getting into the tiny little redesigned stomach pouch and that leads to some real discomfort. Worse than that, it lead to those few bites of instant mashed potatoes coming back up for an encore. Yikes! Sorry about the gross TMI here folks, but I need to document this stuff for posterity… or something like that. It wasn’t bad, just a couple of blasts and it was over. This happens with mashed potatoes once in a while (not very often, but enough to spot patterns) and as usual I felt better almost immediately. I still paused on eating for about half an hour and then I finished my dinner without further issue.

The last bit of stomach excitement is happening as I type this and it really is a non-issue. I don’t like going to bed without having eaten something. It probably makes my sleep less than ideal, but it is WAY better than waking up in the middle of the night with those empty stomach pains. I try to be full when I turn in for the night and tonight I think I may have over done it a little. I was a little behind on the old protein goal so I had a small protein bar to get over the hump. Then 20 minutes later I had some crackers. The two things combined were a little too much and now I feel SUPER full. Not painfully full but a little uncomfortable. I am going to try and stay awake for another hour or so to make sure I feel better before I lay down, but hindsight tells me I should have skipped the crackers. Oh well. It’s hard to gauge what my stomach will need at night so I may actually have to eat something else before I sleep, but I doubt it. I think food and I are done with each other for the night.

So four instances of stomach issues over the course of a single day. That is a lot more than usual for difficult days and given that most days are issue free it’s WAY more than normal for the average day. None of it was really too bad. I mean the vomiting was unpleasant but only for a couple of minutes and as soon as it was over I felt fine. All in all it wasn’t bad. I’d rather a full on easy day, sans-problems, but as problematic days go this one was pretty good.

In closing, I will quote the band Traffic, whose legendary self-titled second album was released 55 years ago this month, and say who knows what tomorrow may bring?

Weight Loss Goal

Daily writing prompt
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
View all responses

Right then, I have to make this quick. Today is my work from the office day and I have an actual morning commute ahead of me.

The hardest personal goal I’ve set for myself has to be losing weight. I had to take some brutally extreme measures to achieve it, but I got there… for now at least.

My whole life I’ve been overweight. I believe morbidly obese is the correct term. I was always able to lose some weight but I was never able to keep it off. You know, the way it is with almost everyone. I would lose 20 pounds over the course of a few months and then gain 30. I would lose 40 and gain 60. Lose 30 and gain 60. By the time I got to my mid-40’s, weighing 400 pounds was almost normal. I was so out of shape that simple tasks were becoming difficult. Walking up a flight of stairs would leave me out of breath and in pain. My back and my legs hurt all the time from carrying myself around. Once the pandemic hit the yo-yo weight loss went out of control. Suddenly weighing 450 pounds was becoming normal and I literally felt like I was going to die on most days.

At some point along the way I had talked to my doctor about weight loss surgery. I went to an information session at a clinic in Chelmsford, MA and it scared the holy hell out of me. The surgery itself was terrifying, but the work needed to be done afterwards to stay healthy was worse. It was so intimidating. I would have to watch every bite of food I ever eat for the rest of my life. I would have to monitor my intake of liquids and proteins forever and I would never be able to eat sugar again. Also, eating too fast or not chewing thoroughly enough could make me feel really sick for short periods of time. It all just felt like too much.

Then the pandemic happened. My father had a heart attack and my mother’s dementia was advanced beyond the point where we could take care of her. Suddenly mortality was very close by and very real. Suddenly my weight and my health as they were became much more terrifying than the weight loss surgery process. I went back to my doctor and then went back to the same clinic and five months later I went under the knife for gastric bypass surgery. I literally had a doctor butcher my digestive system.

It worked. I lost almost 250 pounds over about a year and a half and so far I have been able to maintain that loss. The work required to stay healthy is immense and it has been very difficult at times, but I feel like a different person and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. In the past I would have considered surgery as taking the easy way out. Now that I know how difficult the post-surgery world is, I no longer think it’s a shortcut or cheating. It’s a different sort of challenge than just dieting, but it’s still a difficult challenge.

Now all I have to do is stay on the right path for the rest of my life and I hopefully will maintain the achievement of my weight loss goal. Fingers crossed, right?

9:50am on Day 20

Good news, everybody! Our long national nightmare is over! This morning’s Covid-19 home test came back negative! I’ve been symptom free for a week already and now I have a negative test to go along with it!

This is the final post (probably not ever, but for now) that will be tagged “Live Blogging Covid” and I am really happy about this!

I can go outside again!

I can get the car inspected!

Well… that’s nothing to be excited about. Way to kill the mood, Robert.

Happy negative test day, everyone!

8:51pm on Day 19

Things to do if I test negative tomorrow…

  • Get the Mazda inspected. It’s only three months late.
  • Grocery shopping. Instacart has been fun and all but it will be nice to not have half of our groceries be the wrong things.
  • I want to say go out shooting photos, but it’s supposed to rain all weekend. If we get a little surprise sunshine then maybe.
  • Return a couple of items to Best Buy and Amazon.
  • Change the mask, hose, filter, and tank on my CPAP machine. I will do this even if I don’t test negative, but I figured I’d add it to the list so I don’t forget… again.
  • Pick up a copy of EA Sports NHL24 which was released today.
  • Watch the first episode of season two of Loki with Jen. Again, not Covid related but will happen anyway. I wonder if Harry would be up for a group watch?

Here’s hoping tomorrow sees the end of this ridiculous virus that’s kept me locked up for almost three weeks.